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  • what you can’t live without | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today

    what you can’t live without

    If you wouldn’t bother to drag it away from the gates of hell, and sigh at the first sign of adversity.
    If anything extra is too much for what you’ve budgeted this would cost

    Burn it.
    —
    The movie Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) contains a striking goth image:
    Johnny Depp’s character, stark black outfits and long dark hair, is wearing sunglasses to cover his missing eyes.

    Streams of thick dark red blood have dripped from his eye sockets.
    Painting both undereye areas a ghastly red.

    Yet, he does not give up (his malicious ways).
    Even having lost his eyes, he will not be defeated.

    Admirable.
    However, we must take one thing into consideration:
    He only has his work to focus on, whereas we probably also have a house to take care of, and maybe friends, family, circles of people we regularly see, and so on and so forth.

    We do not have just one job, we’d lose our eyes for and still keep going.
    And that, makes it complicated.

    Even in Romeo and Juliet-like tales, where the main characters center their life around romance, ignoring the social code;
    The war it causes illustrates this immediately has consequences.

    The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what you center your life around;
    Career, romance, running, your health, activism or (my suggestion) your creativity;
    It always, comes at a cost.

    Life has been designed in a way that allows only for shallow, on-the-fly constantly interrupted interactions, that would not even have counted as connection, a few decades ago.

    If you want anything of meaning, you’re going to have to create it yourself.

    The more junk-interactions you have, particularly online, consuming rather than creating or connecting;
    The less value all those interactions have.

    And the happier the big tech companies are, to whom you’re feeding your entire consciousness.
    Instead of to doing things that matter.

    Value is only in the things you’d lose your eyes for.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to receive
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  • Art that requires curtains | Share Your Work 2025 09 22

    In the 80s and 90s there was a small Dutch museum that unexpectedly became a mayor player in the art world:
    Groningen.

    They had installed a director who would bring the museum world fame;
    Its most talked about expositions;
    A new building with spectacular modern architecture built in the middle of a canal;
    And more financial mayhem and legal pushbacks any of the city’s officials were accustomed to receiving.

    One of the expositions contained so many sexually explicit photos, that it shook whomever heard about it to their core.
    And this time, the controversy – the very thought these photos would be in a public space where every innocent museum visitor would be confronted with them – reached unprecedented heights.
    Something had to be done.

    So they decided to have the most hardcore work all in one central space, and the other works would be shown in the adjacent spaces, I would guess ten of them, all spaces which were connected to one another.
    Like one large horseshoe shaped corridor, around one “red hot center”. 

    The entry points to the center were closed by huge black curtains, and guarded by attendants who would inform you of its shocking content, beforehand.

    The space itself, in the belly of the building was huge!
    But it was hot and reeked of the sweat of too many visitors and a ventilation system that was not up for the job.

    It was in this space, where our sexual repertoires were expanded.
    The anticipation had only made us more susceptible to take it all in, without judgement.

    And the media storm subsided.
    Until an incident happened no one had anticipated:
    A mother breast fed her child at the café of the museum, and she was told that was not appropriate.
    While within that very same building, giant depictions of humankind’s most deviant sexual acts were pinned to the walls.

    The lessons:
    One, objectification and sexualization of women is problematic.
    Two, we measure art with different standards.

    And three, when that one enfant terrible offers to make you a star?
    They could be telling the truth.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

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  • how can it serve you | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today

    how can it serve you

    Providing!
    You thought life through and know what your purpose is because by now you live and breathe it and could recognize it deaf, blind, drunk, and with your hands bound behind your back;

    Then why are you not wildly excited about whatever it is you are currently doing?

    —

    In my twenties I knew someone whose academic curriculum contained a book called: “Children need fairy tales” and I was also introduced to the work by Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey.

    Both were, in all probability, a useful addition to my education since I got my highschool education in the years when the Greeks were not part of it.
    Our history classes started with the Romans, something my mother pointed out to me and I believed she even asked our history teacher why the Greeks were not part of Canon.

    Naturally, at the time I thought her concern with this was merely her professional pre-occupation with the topic, and didn’t think much of it.

    But just like children who are raised without sugar (I was ALSO raised without sugar, so I can attest to this from experience) I developed a fascination with it.
    Through mysterious ways of boyfriends giving me books on the subject (without them being on my wish list), fan fiction (you may want to look that up, in case you’re unfamiliar with the term) where the Greeks became a popular topic after the early 21st century Greek revival in movies;
    And numerous other ways, I learned Greek mythology in a deeply intimate way…

    And what both the fairy tales as well as the Greeks have in common, is pointed out in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

    Because they’re quests, which you cannot successfully fulfil unless you have first overcome the series of challenges directly on your path.

    You are trained by the path itself, as you are on your way.
    In the unfolding, you receive what you need later on.

    Nothing is ever wasted.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to receive
    What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
    in your Inbox.

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    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

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    , , ,

  • Rock Star Take On FREEDOM | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

    new video on YouTube:
    click here to see it
    -> https://youtu.be/Fp0tSItNWg4

    Rock Star Take On FREEDOM
    | The New Rock Star Channel
    —

    The New Rock Star Channel is back!
    With a new format:
    – 10 minute video
    – no preparation

    This week, the fourteenth video.
    A Rock Star Take On FREEDOM

    —
    Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
    https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
    2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out
    OR All videos with the playlist of this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNB-coaKIJpD5pxPVdrsGG37nvPCaXZIU
    The New Rock Star Channel
    —

    In this video;

    1. We’re back! 00:00
    With another episode of a Rock Star Take On.
    And this time the topic is FREEDOM

    These new videos
    – are 10 minutes-ish.
    – And I go in without preparation.
    So I can only speak about what I know very well.

    2. Related to autonomy and power 01:22
    Freedom means being able to live life on your own terms.
    The opposite of freedom is living according to someone else’s rules.
    Therefor, freedom is intimately tied to being autonomous and having enough power to live according to your own values.

    Freedom is difficult to obtain because it is opposed by the (power) structures of how society works.

    3. Fighting an unseen enemy 04:11

    The shackles society has put on us, and ways in which it manipulates us into walking in line, are invisible.
    You probably have no idea what you’re up against, until the moment you start breaking out.

    We’re talking generations and even thousands of years of repression here, meticulously woven into the fabric of society.

    4. The anti-social Rock Star 05:58

    The reason the Rock Star as an arche-type, or symbol, has a bit of an anti-social streak, is because they go against, these patterns of social repression.
    A Rock Star is free BECAUSE they oppose this conditioning, and break these chains that almost none of us dare to touch.

    5. It’s not easy 06:30

    Freedom is definitely not the cookie-cutter surface level thing, we usually associate it with. It is tied to a murky messy pot of expectations and pressures, that are extremely challenging to get around.
    In particular because it is so intangible.

    6. Our vision of Freedom 07:45

    It all starts with our own vision of Freedom, and estimating if that is truly our biggest value.
    But beware of the shock once you start walking that path!
    The enemies of freedom are fierce, ancient and they fight dirty.

    7. The rareness of the Rock Star 08:20

    There is a reason why few reach Rock Star levels of freedom, because true freedom requires sacrifice.

    8. Next time 09:38

    In this talk about Freedom we already brushed on the importance on understanding the pressure of expectations.

    Therefor, the next stop is Rock Star Take On
    EXPECTATIONS!

    It will go out on this blog.
    So subscribe!

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

    Subscribe to receive
    Rock Star Take videos
    in your Inbox.

     

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    —
    Playlist of this series:     The New Rock Star Channel

     

    ,

  • your game is multi-level | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today

    your game is multi-level

    With your image so curated, every bit of you speaking your razor sharp truth, it is easy to forget this layer came last.

    The only logical outcome after a process that took you through every cell of your being.

    And to the gates of hell and back.
    —

    A few weeks ago, I was on the verge of Googling what “Flirting in subtext” meant.
    I suspected (and fervently hoped!) it was my natural flirting style, which was odd to say the least, because I did not even know what flirting in subtext meant!

    I felt SEEN, by my own creative word play, and even if Google didn’t come up with anything I was still convinced there were more people with this flirting style.
    The rare ones, who had flirted back….

    But before I got around it, the answer unfolded naturally, from a conversation that initially appeared to be about an entirely unrelated topic.
    Which was when I asked someone to help me untangle something about myself.

    I asked them:
    “I crave deep connection in friendships, but we rarely have what others would view as deep conversations.
    How is that possible?
    How can I crave depth, and apparently find it in fun and banter?”

    And what we found is that what happens when people connect at their deepest levels, the communication channel itself is freed up.
    And can now be used in whatever way the two of you fancy.
    Which in my case, often means play.

    A great performer, is someone who has mastered all the layers of their being.
    They can speak without words, touch without using their hands and connect without even being in the same room.
    They create a bond, that transcends time and space.

    Naturally, the people who can pick up on that frequency, are excited!
    Convinced that this is magic.
    Because it is.

    But it is the one who answers that call, on an energetic level, using their words for something else entirely;
    Those, are the ones we remember.

    It is then, that we feel seen.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to receive
    What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
    in your Inbox.

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
    + a new in person offer: 
    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    ,

  • We travelled unsupervised | Share Your Work 2025 09 08

    I don’t have any pictures to go by, nor can I refer to my agenda because I always covered every page with perfume commercials and other glossy 80s clippings, as soon as the week was over.
    But I know I was young, very young.

    Yet, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of teens who bought a card to travel the country by train, on a shoestring budget.
    And pre-mobile phone, so largely untraceable.

    And it was actually meant for very young teens.
    I remember this because there was also the follow-up card, which was to travel internationally.
    This one was way more expensive, probably due to international collaboration with railway companies who had little to gain from grooming Dutch teens into becoming lifelong train users.
    The international card for young adults was less popular, but I think it did help to get the national one more accepted, since it downgraded it basically to a baby card!
    Something no parent could refuse.

    The best practice at the time was that parents were left a travel schedule, containing sleep-over addresses of their offspring, in particular if it were relatives of the friend you were traveling with, and not their own.

    The days of free traveling were a tremendous confidence boost for any teen who was given this chance.

    And in retrospect, I think this can be traced back to two reasons.

    First of all, it showed you were deemed responsible enough to travel alone.
    It was a vote of confidence from your parents, in your capabilities.

    And secondly, because of this, it also provided you with a protective umbrella.
    Teens who did this were not runaways, nor lost.
    The card provided you with the status of a real traveler, who was backed by both parents as well as Dutch Railways.
    That, is powerful.

    And it makes me think of all the situations where we have started measuring exclusively to the benchmark of SAFETY.

    Losing sight of values like personal power, resilience and growth.

    Values like standing on your own two feet.
    And taking on the world.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to this blog to receive
    Share Your Work 
    in your Inbox.

    Or

    Subscribe to Substack to receive all international content
    -> https://suzannebeenackers.substack.com/

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
    + a new in person offer: 
    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

  • give us something real | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today

    give us something real

    We don’t care for the polished, the post-productioned, the copy-edited and the filter that took a decade off your face.

    Show us the nitty gritty.

    —

    For years, yes, actual years (I know you probably won’t believe me) I’ve struggled publishing a book that will be my magnum opus.
    I did not write it under this name, so I probably should not even tell you this because it’s secretive, not transparent, and then the status of what you should be doing with this information becomes unclear as well.
    The point, Rock Star.
    The point!

    You, reading advice from someone telling only half a story?
    That’s the kind of messy not-fitted-for-your-brand randomness we’re craving to see from you.

    As I was saying, for years now, I’m struggling with this book.
    And it’s tempting to suggest it’s the psychological weight of it, because it’s about a man who broke up with me years ago.
    But No!
    I’m simply really bad at copy editing, and at getting big projects like this done.

    I don’t have a mold for it, and it took me a decade after I started writing, before I had my first book in print.

    And nothing changed as I’m still terribly slow and I have dropped this project so often I could cry if I think about all the lost time.
    It’s probably even barricading my love life to have this unfinished manuscript blocking anything that wants to come in.

    But want to know my biggest mistake?
    This whole idea of copy-editing, this slow as a snail process I am making myself go through.

    Embarrassed, every time I find errors.
    And I find a lot.
    And I find them again when after 3 years I look at the first chapter which has already been edited six times prior.

    It’s like pulling teeth!!!
    PERFECTLY GOOD TEETH

    Because that creepy sketch you drew drunk in the middle of the night?

    That photo you took, when your lens broke down because it had sand in it?

    The diary with all the random entries?

    Give. It. To. Us. 

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to receive
    What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
    in your Inbox.

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
    + a new in person offer: 
    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    ,

  • Rock Star Take On MESSAGE | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

    new video on YouTube:
    click here to see it
    -> https://youtu.be/nE1xk1vIGEg

    Rock Star Take On MESSAGE
    | The New Rock Star Channel
    —

    The New Rock Star Channel is back!
    With a new format:
    – 10 minute video
    – no preparation

    This week, the thirteenth video.
    A Rock Star Take On MESSAGE

    —
    Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
    https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
    2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out
    OR All videos with the playlist of this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNB-coaKIJpD5pxPVdrsGG37nvPCaXZIU
    The New Rock Star Channel
    —

    In this video;

    1. We’re back! 00:00
    With another episode of a Rock Star Take On.
    And this time the topic is MESSAGE

    We rebooted this series a few weeks ago.
    Changes that were made are:
    – Vids are now 10 minutes.
    – And I go in without preparation.

    2. How I got The Message 00:45
    I didn’t really understand the whole concept of messaging, until about ten years ago.
    But looking back, I can assure you, your Message is not as important as it is said out to be.
    For many sectors and situations having a message is irrelevant.

    3. Local Businesses 01:24
    Message? Usually entirely irrelevant! Hear me out! 😉

    4. Public services 03:20
    Again, you can do without a message.
    Illustrated with the situation in The Netherlands where unfortunately the difference between public and commercial has become murkier with every decade.

    5. Commercial & working on the Consumer market 05:37
    This is the only situation where a message (or marketing) becomes relevant.
    (and not business-to-business)

    6. But what makes it Rock Star?! 06:40
    What would a Rock Star message be then?
    It is here where a Rock Star really has the competitive advantage because, they have it all mapped out.
    Because, they already are their message.
    Because, they only have one value and not a 1000 contradictory things.

    A Rock Star is the embodiment of one, singular message:
    Freedom.

    Therefor, the next stop is Rock Star Take On
    FREEDOM!

    It will go out on this blog.
    So subscribe!

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

    Subscribe to receive
    Rock Star Take videos
    in your Inbox.

     

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    —
    Playlist of this series:     The New Rock Star Channel

     

    ,

  • your vision board speaks | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today

    your vision board speaks

    From the thoughts endlessly mulled over and chewed on
    To the unsatisfactory photo where the model didn’t have your hair color
    And the random clippings that had a pleasant aesthetic and were (you were sure of this!) without meaning

    Your inner-world craft a spell of them.
    —

    I saw it from the corner of my eye.

    The laminated A4 had been used as the backcover to a binder I used to collect my most important blogs in.
    Posts I did not want to forget.

    Until there were so many of them that even the biggest ring I had for my binding machine, could no longer hold them.
    I started a new volume and archived this one on the shelves next to my window.

    And as I looked out the window contemplating what I would write today, I saw the old vision board.
    Holding on to years of my most important blogs for me.
    Which of course, I all forgot.

    I took it off the shelves and my eyes went over the landscape A4 of the collage, and wondered what year it was from.
    Because my dreams had always been the same.
    My role models were unchanging, although every five to ten years or so a new one could be added.
    The collage depicted both pictures of me as well as different female stars, all representing different areas of my life.
    And pictures of male stars, sometimes together with a woman, representing the men in my life and then the woman represented me.

    All of this was eternal.

    Yet where I had tried to be specific in what I wanted, I had failed to achieve it.

    On the inside of the back cover, so the back of the vision board, I had made a complementary blueprint of how to become that woman on the vision board.
    It has blogs and channels and ideas on it, I dropped ages ago.

    Signed on the day this quest would begin:
    Independence Day 2021

    As if my dreams required a battle plan in order to be conquered.

    But on the front, every photo with every woman;
    Still me.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to receive
    What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
    in your Inbox.

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
    + a new in person offer: 
    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    ,

  • There was nobody there | Share Your Work 2025 08 25

    It is a crossover between a museum and a theme park. But unless you live in the Netherlands and also have children, you have probably never visited the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht.

    When we arrived there was almost no one there. It was still early, 10 AM on a Saturday.
    But if you’d arrive at a theme park on the first train which arrives just as the gates open, the train would have been cramped and upon arrival you’d have to go straight to the most popular rides to make the most out of that first hour when there are fewer people in the park.

    But we had none of that.

    The train was quiet, which was a relief after total chaos and mayhem we’d had on the other lines to Utrecht.
    And in the quiet museum the large food court was already ready to serve us, despite there only being a handful of visitors yet.
    It was like heaven, if heaven was a theme park that welcomed guests with a cup of well-earned coffee and a remedial bagel.
    The dark rides and thrill rides could wait.

    After that we were still in time to be among the only ones in the ride which had brought me there, The Trial By Fire Ride.
    The reason I wanted to go there, was because the script of two centuries of train history, was written and narrated by the late Rutger Hauer.
    He was actively involved in creating it and can be seen in a long video at the beginning of the ride.

    The ride itself is a train simulator which, coincidence or not, also rides through a Bladerunner-like futuristic landscape at high speed.

    At the museum the best displays can often be found in the entrance halls and queuing areas.
    So you can read them while you wait.
    But the disadvantage is that if you would choose to not do a certain ride, you also miss out on these beautiful vintage displays.
    And on Rutger Hauer teaching on trains.

    I think the museum has clearly been betting on two horses, which means you’ll never be one for the masses.

    But you could be the only one Holland’s biggest movie star has ever graced with their presence.

    .
    ~Suzanne Beenackers
    Catacombe
    become the Rock Star you were born to be

    Subscribe to this blog to receive
    Share Your Work 
    in your Inbox.

    Or

    Subscribe to Substack to receive all international content
    -> https://suzannebeenackers.substack.com/

    offers for Rock Stars
    📍📡🖤-> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
    + a new in person offer: 
    Walk of FAME 

    .

    Catacombe is email-list free!!

    Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
    But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

    Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

    NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK